Kirby Muxloe Castle

Kirby Muxloe Castle stands in the Leicestershire village of Kirby Muxloe on low-lying land once surrounded by a water-filled moat. William, Lord Hastings, began the fortified manor house in 1480 on the site of an earlier residence. He was a powerful favourite of King Edward IV and had grown rich during the Wars of the Roses. The project moved quickly under the clerk of works Roger Bowlott, with brick production reaching 100,000 a week. A master mason named John Cowper supervised the stonework and over forty men worked at times on the site. The castle was designed as a rectangle 245 by 175 feet with four corner towers, three side towers and a large gatehouse. Only the gatehouse and the west tower survive today, built in fashionable late 15th-century brickwork with darker brick symbols in the walls. Twelve gunports were cut into these buildings, though their purpose remains uncertain. Historic England recognises the remains as a remarkable example of a high-status late medieval quadrangular castle. The foundations of the original manor house were uncovered during early repairs and remain visible in the lawns. Visitors find the surviving gatehouse and west tower standing within a partly refilled moat. The brickwork shows intricate patterns and carved symbols, while the foundations of the earlier house lie exposed in the grass. The site is quiet, set back from the village, with the remains of gardens and orchards nearby. English Heritage manages the ruins, which still show the scale and ambition of Hastings’s unfinished project. The brickwork was repaired again in 2006, and the moat was re-cut during earlier restorations.